Vienna, 13 November, 2023
After participating in the 20th edition of the Vienna Economic Forum, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, was invited as a guest by the Karl-Renner-Institut to discuss developments in Kosovo and geopolitical interests around our country.
In his opening speech, he spoke about the government on the verge of completing 2/3 of the mandate, emphasizing the high institutional stability, economic development and democratic progress in these almost 32 months.
The economic growth of 10.7 percent of the Gross Domestic Product in 2021, 5.2 percent in 2022, and 3.8 percent that is expected for this year, the prime minister said that we have taken care to redistribute the citizens in social justice services and for the benefit of always. As a result, he added that Kosovo, according to the World Bank, had the largest package as a percentage of GDP in the region to support citizens in dealing with inflation and the energy crisis.
Further, speaking about the main economic indicators, the prime minister also mentioned the doubling of exports and foreign investments, while tax revenues have increased by 2/3, in addition to the increased support for farmers and families in order to increase energy efficiency.
He also singled out the achievements in the field of education, where he highlighted the decision to make public higher education free, incentives for students in STEM fields through scholarships, the start and continuation of dual education in a total of 12 profiles from 4 in the first year, and the inclusion of the coding subject from the first grade from the next academic year.
In the fight against organized crime and corruption, Prime Minister Kurti said that more than 1,000 police operations were carried out, some 3,800 people were arrested for crime and corruption, nearly 300 public officials, because as he said, you cannot fight corruption and organized crime in society when you have it inside public institutions, and 32 illegal roads have been closed in total, of which 24 in the north of the country, where 9 drug laboratories and 6 laboratories for the production of crypto currencies have also been destroyed.
Prior to our interest and effort to focus on socio-economic transformation, in the introductory speech he said that dealing with geo-politics was a necessity. The prime minister said that things have become even more complicated after the Russian aggression in Ukraine, because Serbia became the only European country that did not impose sanctions on the Russian Federation, while there are 48 front operational bases, 20 of which are gendarmerie and the rest are military, around the border with Kosovo except criminal and violent groups.
In his presentation to the audience, the Prime Minister expressed his conviction that the European Union is the most important peace and prosperity project since the Second World War. For this, he said that Kosovo relies on the Berlin Process, which prepares us for European integration, and that Kosovo has taken the biggest step forward as evidenced by the EU Country Report and that the day Kosovo will become EU members should be measured in years and not decades.
This was the third time that Prime Minister Kurti was a guest of the Karl-Renner-Institute. During the discussion for over an hour, the prime minister also answered the questions and interest of the audience present.
